Dr Patricia Johnson

Career Summary

Biography

Patricia embarked on her academic career from a business background to examine the perception and management of risk and security in tourist experiences, a study which involved traveling to Iran with the third Australian tour group to enter Iran after the Islamic revolution. Her research maintains an inter-disciplinary and inter-cultural focus and draws from the humanities and social sciences to engage concepts such as ideology, discourse, liminality, risk, cultural capital, the gaze and identity and difference to explore the emerging field of cosmopolitanism and questions relating to cultural literacy and global citizenship. In this, her work assumes a historical perspective to understand the discursive constitution of culture - that is, relationships of power and the ways in which knowledge of others is constructed, legitimated, reproduced and reworked. She maintains an expertise in analysing travel media, in particular, travel writing to explore 'western' viewing positions over the foreign. Other research interests include destination development and cruise ship tourism and, in particular the roles of stakeholders in knowledge transfer processes and the role of volunteerism in the context of urban tourism. Patricia has been involved with a range of research projects and has provided strategic support to the school's Tourism Research Unit. Her teaching career also reflects this inter-disciplinary focus having taught a number of courses since 2001 at the University of Newcastle in the areas of tourism studies, media studies, cultural studies and social enquiry. Outside of academia she experience in business management in civil construction and has worked as a consultant devising and researching the effectiveness of workplace training in a range of industry applications.

Research ExpertiseDr Patricia Johnson's primary research expertise lies within qualitative research method, but is also experienced in designing and carrying out quantitative research. As a researcher, her focus is interdisciplinary and lie within the areas of tourism studies and cultural studies. The focus of her PhD research built upon her previous research of risk and perceptions of risk in tourism experiences to Iran to examine the ways that cultural literacy , global citizenry and cosmopolitanism are expressed in Western writings about tourism and travel. Patricia maintains an active and interdisciplinary research focus is which draws from English literature, cultural studies, sociology, geography, anthropology, gender studies and tourism studies to engage concepts such as the emerging area of cosmopolitanism, liminality, the tourist gaze and cultural capital. Other areas of interest in research include cruise ship tourism, nautical tourism, destination development and image development. She held a key research position examining stakeholder attitudes about the readiness of Newcastle as a home for cruise ship tourism and is actively engaged in furthering research efforts in this field. In late 2010, Dr Johnson delivered a key note speech at an international conference held at Ta-Jen University in Taiwan titled "Capitalising on the Future: Regional Tourism Planning Issues in New South Wales" which drew from her research on the development of the cruise industry in Newcastle. During that visit she delivered presentations to staff and graduate students at other universities about her research and emerging tourism issues from an Australian persepective. Other areas of research that she has been involved in include recreation specialisation and tourist image construction of PNG, wine tourism and volunteer tourism. As lecturer and a dedicated teacher, she is actively involved in research projects involving teaching and learning in the Faculty of Business and Law - a current project investigates the experiences of students who use the Open Foundation Studies pathway into undergraduate studies.

Teaching ExpertiseDr Patricia Johnson is Lecturer and Course Coordinator in Sustainable Tourism Management at Callaghan and Ourimbah campuses in NSW and is Course Coordinator in the delivery of courses at the University of Newcastle campus in Singapore. Courses include: Visitor Behaviour and Management Festival and Event Planning Theory in Tourism. Honours Coordinator for the Tourism Discipline in the Newcastle Business School PhD Supervision Patricia has substantial experience in teaching at an undergraduate level across disciplines and topic areas having held a number of teaching and lecturing postions at the University of Newcastle since 2001 in the fields of Tourism, Leisure and Recreation, Social Science, Cultural Studies (including media and film studies) and English Language and Open Foundation Studies. She is a committed teacher whose approach to teaching tourism is informed by this interdisciplinary teaching experience.

Qualifications

PhD, University of Newcastle

Bachelor of Business, University of Newcastle

Bachelor of Social Science (Honours), University of Newcastle

Keywords

Cosmopolitanism

Cruise Ship Tourism

Cultural Literacy

Cultural Studies

Culture and Heritage Management

Destination Image

Liminality

Media Studies

Risk and Tourism

Tourism Behaviour

Tourism Management

Travel Writing

Fields of Research

Code

Description

Percentage

150499

Commercial Services not elsewhere classified

30

150601

Impacts of Tourism

70

Professional Experience

UON Appointment

Title

Organisation / Department

Lecturer

University of NewcastleNewcastle Business SchoolAustralia

Academic appointment

Dates

Title

Organisation / Department

1/01/2010 -

Lecturer

University of NewcastleBusiness and Law Australia

1/01/2009 - 1/01/2010

Lecturer

University of NewcastleBusiness and Law Australia

1/01/2007 - 1/12/2007

Research Academic

University of NewcastleSchool of Humanities and Social ScienceAustralia

1/01/2007 - 1/12/2008

Research Academic

University of Newcastle School of Economics, Politics and TourismAustralia

1/01/2001 - 1/12/2008

Casual Lecturer and Tutor

University of NewcastleSchool of Humanities and Social ScienceAustralia

Keogh C, Kriz A, Johnson PC, 'Is the Party Over for Second Homes in Australia? How Action Research and
Management Theory Can Combine to Aid a Fragmented Sector', Program and abstracts from the IGU Commission for the Geography of Tourism, Leisure and Global Change conference, Skeviks gård, Stockholm, 9-11 June 2014, Skeviks gård, Stockholm, Sweden (2014) [E3]